Rival Research campuses?

35 posts in this topic

A new bio-technology research campus to open in Kannapolis. Could bring up to 100 companies and 35,000 jobs. Is this a cause for concern for the RTP? Curious about what everyone thinks.

Personally, I think RTP will be fine. It is already well-established and its proximity to the airport and universities make it more attractive than does Kannapolis in my opinion. Looks like a great project for the once thriving textile town. I hope it does well, but I know I will be disappointed everytime I hear a company picking Kannapolis over RTP/Centennial Campus.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

It won't bring 100 companies and 35,000 jobs-those are soundbite clips. The Piedmont Triad Research Park touts the same numbers, meanwhile after 10 years there are only a little over 600 jobs there. Essentially it is a smaller Centennial Campus with one large core lab. It will probably bring some jobs to the area but you have a population there that isn't qualified for a lot of those jobs. I really don't see the entire town of Kannapolis being retrained (there was an article talking about how most residents have no desire to go back to school). Don't even see it as a blip on the tech scene except for self-promotion by Murdock. Only one company has signed on even with all the hubbub-Labcorp will have a small facility there. The Labcorp CEO is on the board of Castle and Cooke-the real estate company developing this thing.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

I think it is good to host regional RTP like areas. It gives people choice whether to move to the Charlotte or Raleigh metro areas. This also helps make North Carolina, to an even wider scale, a better place to live/work/play rather than people just knowing about the Triangle.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

A new bio-technology research campus to open in Kannapolis. Could bring up to 100 companies and 35,000 jobs. Is this a cause for concern for the RTP? Curious about what everyone thinks.

Personally, I think RTP will be fine. It is already well-established and its proximity to the airport and universities make it more attractive than does Kannapolis in my opinion. Looks like a great project for the once thriving textile town. I hope it does well, but I know I will be disappointed everytime I hear a company picking Kannapolis over RTP/Centennial Campus.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

The difference is that RTP was AHEAD of the curve not behind it. Every state has some type of biotech initiative. Scripps in Florida and Janelia Farm in NoVa to me would be the most competitive although RTPs main concern is international (Singapore).

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

Oh boy, do I hear a bit of the never ending rivalry between Charlotte and the Raleigh area in this thread

I started the thread and rivalry with Charlotte was not the point. The question pertains to any city vying for the same type of companies as the Triangle. Please don't come over here and start a Charlotte is superior thing to rattle any cages.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

Isn't the Kannapolis park going to focus on nutrition research since Murdock's money comes from Dole Foods (correct me if I'm wrong.) It seems like PTRP would be more in competition with RTP than Kannapolis will be, but in reality each of the three research parks are different enough that they might complement each other and elevate the state as an even stronger player in biotech/tech than it already is.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

The truth is that the Kannapolis project and PTRP will be fighting it out to garner tenants. RTP already has 40,000 people working in it. It is in the process of adding another 6000-10,000 in the next 5-10 years. Essentially it does not have competition within the state but rather is competing globally at this point. People fail to realize that the Triangle is in the top 3 areas in the world as far as life sciences. One of their main initiatives is recruiting more international companies. I would say Centennial Campus (NCSU) is more of a fair comparison to those projects but is way ahead of both.

Centennial Campus currently has the following:

1,600 corporate and government employees

1,350 university faculty, staff and post-docs

3,400 university students

600 middle school students

60 housing residents

PTRP currently has 600 employees.

NC Research Campus-still in planning and development.

One thing to remember as well is that the NC Research Campus has 3 Triangle universities essentially running it-I think this may give it a leg up on PTRP.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

The truth is that the Kannapolis project and PTRP will be fighting it out to garner tenants. RTP already has 40,000 people working in it. It is in the process of adding another 6000-10,000 in the next 5-10 years. Essentially it does not have competition within the state but rather is competing globally at this point. People fail to realize that the Triangle is in the top 3 areas in the world as far as life sciences. One of their main initiatives is recruiting more international companies. I would say Centennial Campus (NCSU) is more of a fair comparison to those projects but is way ahead of both.

Centennial Campus currently has the following:

1,600 corporate and government employees

1,350 university faculty, staff and post-docs

3,400 university students

600 middle school students

60 housing residents

PTRP currently has 600 employees.

NC Research Campus-still in planning and development.

One thing to remember as well is that the NC Research Campus has 3 Triangle universities essentially running it-I think this may give it a leg up on PTRP.

RTP is a mature and transforming research park. It's future will turn it into more of Metropolis Downtown for the Triangle. There are new industries moving in such as Finance Operations. The Bio-polis will have a niche in Nutrition while I'm not sure what the Triad is heavily focused on logistics and could use that to its advantage in coordination with the many colleges there. The Bio-polis also has the backing of the UNC, Duke, NCSU, A&T, UNCC, and others.

I hope all the parks thrive in their own way...

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

After the $500 million Women's Health Initiative Study results I don't know if I would rely so heavily on nutrition research for disease prevention/cures. Also, I don't think there is a large market for "super fruit" etc.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

I agree. The way our state is growing, the Charlotte region, The Triad. and Triangle are only going to become more interconnected. The more research parks the better off we all are. North Carolina is one of the leading Southern states when it comes to lessening reliance on textiles and agriculture and investing in clean and green tech fields.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

I think most of these parks (Triad, Kannapolis, etc.) will be more successful than the Global Transpark. Fed Ex locating in G'boro was probably the final nail. Eastern NC would be better served piggy-backing off the Triangle's development especially when unemployment gets back down to 1-2%. It seems that service job, bio-manufacturing, etc. will be taking over the old cotton, tobacco and manufacturing jobs.

People are going to have to get used to learning new skills periodically in order to be competive...

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

Biomanufacturing will not replace the amount of jobs lost in textiles, furniture, tobacco, etc. The reason is that pharma employs most people in biomanufacturing and there aren't a lot of those jobs being created. Big pharma is also sending a lot of those jobs overseas as well. I know a guy from India that was telling me about a massive Pfizer plant over there.

I will post some articles on here on the biotech hype sweeping the US in the next day or two.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

Nice write-up in the N&O about the possible future relationships between the state's three research parks. One thing that strikes me is the acreage of the parks. RTP is 20,000 acres

Wow. So while Winston-Salem (with a little help from the best university in the world ) has built a park downtown, and Kannapolis is building a park that will house 35,000 employees by 2010, yet only sits on 350 acres or so, we are able to accomodate approxomiately two workers per acre on a sprawling campus in the middle of nowhere. I had no idea about that. These developments are still great for the state, though...

I know that the central location within the Triangle is a huge draw, but I just wish we could have those workers in our urban centers. Think about how vibrant it would be if half of those workers lived and worked in/near downtown. Also, does the HUGE amount of land at RTP give it an innate advantage? I know that size matters and everything, but I would like a little more density. Maybe a possiblity in the future?

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

The 35,000 people in 3 years at Kannapolis is a complete fantasy. RTP has a 40-year headstart on these two projects. Wake Forest has more going for it than you think, and their partnership with Va Tech in biomedical engineering is really starting to get rolling- I just had a friend complete the PhD there. Also, there's a team working on PAINT that generates solar power that recently had a significant breakthrough.

Kannapolis has one thing going for it- $$$. Without the Dole $$$, there's nothing going on in Kannapolis. No university, no core of highly educated workers graduating from a Research I quality institution each year. Winston has Wake Forest, and RTP has Duke/UNC/NCSU.

The question is can $$$ buy talent and relocate it faster than Wake Forest can crank it out? It will be interesting to see where all 3 parks are in 10 years. You can be sure that in the long run, Kannapolis and Winston will have better multimodal access and higher quality of life for people who want to live near their workplaces.